Musings of a Shireling

What are spiritual gifts?

When was the last time you lived without light? Because we have electricity in our homes we can live with the lights on 24 hours a day if we want, although it wouldn’t be very eco-friendly! Light is useful. Plants use it to generate food, we use it to see, to have the internet, to watch DVDs.

But besides being useful, light is beautiful. White light is made up of a whole load of different colours of light. When it shines through a prism it refracts, which means it is split into all the different colours that make up white light and looks really pretty like this:

(C) Andrew Davidhazy

This isn’t something you only see in a school science lesson, it’s what makes gemstones sparkle. Diamonds are especially good at it. When white light goes through a well-cut diamond, it bounces around inside it and shines out in different colours from its different facets, beautifully sparkling and shining. One beam of white light, shining through a diamond, gives off a whole host of different colours through its different facets:

(C) Shutterstock.com

Not only that, but things that light shines through are really useful – things like light bulbs and windows and magnifying glasses. They are useful because light shines through them to do something, like make something look bigger, or find your way around in the dark, or let you see through a wall.

At my church we’ve been going through a sermon series about the Holy Spirit and the gifts that He gives. Before this sermon, we’d seen that only the Holy Spirit can make us spiritually alive and believe in Jesus. We learned that the Spirit’s main goal is to point people to Jesus and glorify Him. We also learned that the Spirit works in Christians to transform us and grow godly character and behaviour in us.

In this sermon, we moved from looking at what the Holy Spirit does in us to what He does through us. In 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, we’ll see where they come from, who they are given to, and why. Have a look at 1 Corinthians 12:7: “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” Spiritual gifts are given by the Holy Spirit, to every Christian, for the sake of others. Let’s pick that apart:

Given by the Holy Spirit

Paul wrote the book of 1 Corinthians to the church in Corinth to correct wrong behaviour in their life as a church together. This passage is part of a number of chapters about what worship together should look like. Before he launches in to talking about spiritual gifts, he reminds the Corinthians where their relationship with the Holy Spirit began:

“Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.”

1 Corinthians 12:1-3

It is only by the Holy Spirit that someone can say “Jesus is Lord”. This doesn’t mean that someone who isn’t a Christian can’t say a combination of “Jesus” “is” and “Lord” in that order, but that only the Holy Spirit enables us to truly mean it when we say it, to truly place Jesus as Lord over our lives. This is the Spirit making Jesus known to us and giving spiritual birth to us, making us spiritually alive, as we saw a couple of weeks ago. When we become Christians the Holy Spirit actually comes and lives in us. Earlier in 1 Corinthians, in chapter three verse 16, Paul says “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” Think about that – God’s Holy Spirit, that hovered above the unformed waters before creation, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you.

And the Holy Spirit gives us spiritual gifts. Just quickly skim verses 4-11 – different gifts are described, but they are all given by the “same Spirit” (v4), “through the Spirit” (v8), by “the one Spirit” (v9), and are all “empowered by one and the same Spirit” and apportioned by Him (v11). As verse seven says, “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” a “manifestation” is something that clearly shows or embodies something that you can’t see, so these “manifestations of the Spirit” are visible signs of the Holy Spirit living in someone and working through them. A diamond doesn’t shine because it generates light, it shines because light from somewhere else shines through it. So the gifts that the Holy Spirit gives aren’t about an abstract sense of spirituality where we’re given power to become some kind of demigod. No, the Spirit empowers us with gifts so that He can do something through them. We’ve seen before that the Spirit’s main concern is to point people to Jesus and glorify Him. So a gift isn’t spiritual because it looks supernatural. It is spiritual because it is given by the Spirit to point others to Jesus.

The Spirit also chooses who gets given what. Verse 11 says He “apportions to each one individually as he wills.” Sometimes we can downplay who the Holy Spirit is and end up reducing Him in our minds to merely a force sent from God. But He is a Person in the Trinity. He is God, and He has sovereign will to give gifts as He sees fit.

Given to every Christian

“To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit…” [v7a]. The Holy Spirit gives every Christian spiritual gifts. He doesn’t assign them to us because we earn them, but because of God’s grace. He doesn’t see someone and think they are a good enough Christian to be given the gift of wisdom, or healing, or whatever. No, the gifts the Spirit gives are given to us as part of the renewed relationship that we have with God because Jesus bought it for us on the cross. This means that every single Christian in this room has spiritual gifts. If you are a Christian, there are visible ways in which the Holy Spirit has equipped you and works through you.

Not every gift the Spirit gives is the same in everyone. As it says in verses 4-6, there are varieties of gifts given by the Spirit. Paul gives a list of some of them a bit further down the paragraph: utterance of wisdom and knowledge, God-given wisdom and insight in particular situations that’s beyond the ordinary. A special equipping of faith to see beyond circumstances to trust in God. The working of miracles: God manifesting His power in supernatural acts. The ability to distinguish between spirits: discerning whether something someone says or does comes from the Holy Spirit’s work, Satan’s activity, or their own sinful human nature. The other gifts of healing, prophecy and speaking in and interpreting tongues were covered later in this sermon series (you can find the sermons here). All the things that Paul lists here are impressive, but it isn’t a definitive list of Spirit-given manifestations of Himself. In verse 28 Paul mentions apostles, teachers, helping and administrating. In Romans 12:6-21 he talks about teaching, encouraging, generosity, leading and being merciful. In Ephesians 4:11-15 he describes evangelists too. In 1 Peter 4:10-11 Peter talks about speaking God’s words to people and serving others.

There are a whole load of different gifts that we can be given. It all comes from the same God, but will look different in each person, like one beam of light coming in to a diamond shines out through its different facets in different colours.

Given for the common good

Having these abilities in and of themselves is not why we have them. “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” (v7) We are not given these gifts to keep to ourselves and think how great and “spiritual” we are. No, the whole purpose of the Holy Spirit giving every Christian manifestations of Himself is so that we use them for the good of other people. The church that Paul is writing to here had a problem with arrogance and disunity. They saw their meetings together as a way to show off how spiritual they thought they were. But verse 7 says there is no place for that in the Church. Looking back at verse 4, it says there are varieties of gifts and varieties of service and activities.

A magnifying glass is no use if it holds on to light. The whole point of it is that light goes through so it can be used to help someone see something better. And what use is a completely blacked-out window? If you cover a light bulb, the bulb gets the light but it’s no good to anyone keeping that light to itself! If the Holy Spirit gives you a certain gift, enjoy that you have it but realise that you have been given it in order to serve others with it. If the Spirit gives you the ability to speak wisely and knowledgeably, it is so that you can share that wisdom with others. If He gives you extraordinary faith, it is to encourage others to trust Him, too. If working miracles, it’s to serve others and show God’s power, not your prestige. If you are gifted in discernment, it’s to help others see what is from God and what isn’t.

It’s no mistake that straight after these verses come a passage about the Church being made up of many unique but united parts, like a body. Because just as God has created us all unique, by His Spirit He has equipped us all uniquely to serve others in the context of the Church. Like the facets of a well-cut diamond shine out all the different colours in white light, as each of us uses the gifts that the Spirit has given us for the sake of others in the church family we will show each other a beautiful spectrum of who God is.

Shining bright

In this passage we’ve seen that the Holy Spirit gives gifts and abilities to every Christian so that we use them to serve others. So how should we respond?

Firstly, we should be filled with wonder at what God does in and through us. His Spirit gives manifestations of Himself to each and every Christian. If you truly believe that Jesus is Lord, you have Spirit-given gifts. Not because of whether you think you’re a good Christian or not, but because the Spirit has enabled you to be a Christian. So if you struggle to believe that you have something to contribute to your church family, be encouraged – you do. The gifts you have been given are manifestations of the Spirit. God’sSpirit visibly lives in us! So let’s be in awe of the God who chooses to put His Spirit in us to make us more like Him, and empowers us to do things that reflect Him.

Secondly, we must be humble. Because gifts of the Spirit are gifts of God’s grace, we must remember that they have been assigned to us by God. We don’t spiritually “level up” to get them, and they aren’t skills to be learned and collected. No one of us is better or worse than another because of the particular set of gifts that God has given. If you do have a particular gift it isn’t a thing that you own, like a spiritual multi-tool that fixes other people’s problems and makes you feel good because you’ve Done It Yourself. It’s a way that God works through you, not you work to be like God.

We should also humbly depend on God to give us gifts and empower us to serve. If you long to have a particular gifting, pray for it! If you can recognise gifts in yourself, praise God for them and ask Him to show you how you can serve others with them. If you see them in someone else, thank God for them and also encourage that person in using their gifting.

Finally, since we have been given spiritual gifts to use to serve other people, we should use them to serve other people! This could be telling people on the other side of the world who have never heard the Gospel the good news that Jesus’ life, death and resurrection means that we can be right with God. Or it could mean telling the people who live next door or share an office with you. It could be sacrificially giving up time and energy to help a brother or sister in Christ who is suffering. It could be praying persistently for people, situations or countries that so desperately need God to act in or for them. It could mean spending your life working hard to lead a church. It could mean bringing up your children to know and love God and what it looks like to live as one of His people. Or standing up for truth when it hurts, or serving week after week on the welcome team, or a well-timed humble word of correction, or welcoming someone you don’t know… there is no end to what this practically looks like, because God is endlessly creative in not just how He has made us as individuals but also in how He empowers us to work for others’ good and His glory. Every single Christian has God-given ways that He has empowered them to serve, so let’s serve each other with what God has given us in that He has equipped us to do it. And as we serve, let’s humbly depend on God and serve in His strength and power, so that we will point people to Jesus and not ourselves. Let’s choose to use what the Holy Spirit has given us for the sake of other people, so God will show the full spectrum of His glory through us.